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We know how ruthless cartels can be.
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But now Tortillaria and other local businesses are being forced to comply
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with the cartels demands.
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So here to explain this alarming situation is Mary Beth Sheridan from
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the Washington Post. Hello,
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Nice to be with you.
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Thank you so much for joining us.
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All right. So I'll kick it off.
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So I'm curious why are cartels picking on local businesses and not
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rival gangs or other cartels?
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There's been a real change in how cartels operate in Mexico.
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It used to be a handful of really big organizations think of
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like El Chapo Guzman,
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Right. And they would move drugs to the US,
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cocaine, heroin and so on.
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But really what's happened is there's still a couple of big groups
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but a lot of the crime groups have splintered.
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There's no hundreds of groups and a lot of them need to
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make money and they can't actually,
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they don't have the size to,
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you know, move drugs.
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So what they really are doing is turning on local Mexican communities
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and tortilla shops are one of the real signs of this that
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they're demanding protection money.
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And if people don't pay,
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they burn down the shops or they shoot the entrances and this
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is happening, you see it a lot with tortilla shops,
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but also with all kinds of small chicken vendors,
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butchers. And it's becoming a mass phenomenon in Mexico.
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So how are these people reacting to this extortion?
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And are they afraid?
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Are there any groups revolting against the cartel?
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It's interesting because there's so much fear that I would say in
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general, most people are just terrified to talk about it because
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they don't want their shop to be attacked or their family members
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to be beaten up or whatever it is.
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So tortilla shops in a city called Cola in Morelos,
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they're having to pay protection money of $3000 in order to be
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able to stay open and then they have to pay after that
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another $500 or so a month.
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So it's really, people are often so afraid to denounce.
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So you don't see a lot of cases in the judicial system
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But business groups,
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I would say religious leaders and others just tell you it's incredibly
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widespread. I can actually second this personally because actually my dad
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has a friend who decided to start a business in Jalisco and
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supposedly he put up his business and they actually went to his
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business and they said,
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ok, so you started your business.
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So this is the amount of money that we're collecting from.
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You So this percentage of your sales is going to go to
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So my dad's friend actually,
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he didn't want to be involved with that.
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So he ended up coming back to the US and closing shop
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This is actually happening.
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Yeah, this is real life.
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And what are the economical effects that this cartel tax is having
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on Mexico's economy? It's really remarkable.
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So it's very hard to get data.
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One point we did was extortion is really widespread in agriculture.
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And there's an economist at the U A,
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the Mexican University who has done really careful work on this.
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And he said that for example,
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with agricultural products, fruits and vegetables last year,
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the inflation for that those products was around 6% and a quarter
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of it was extortion.
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So if you think about the massive size of the agricultural economy
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in Mexico, like we're just talking about,
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you know, hundreds of millions of dollars.
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And then we tried to also look at other ways in which
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the crime economy is spreading.
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And you see things like you know,
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a third of the oil and gas sold in Mexico now is
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illegal, right? It's controlled by crime groups.
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You know, if you think about the traditional drug groups earning
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they estimate around $12 billion a year.
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If you add up these other illegal businesses,
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it could be almost as big as that and where you're beginning
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to see more and more of the spillover facts is,
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for example, we're having elections in Mexico and in the lead
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it's been so violent.
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So many candidates have been killed,
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so many have been threatened.
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I mean, hundreds have dropped out of the races and it's
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because these crime groups really want to control the mayor and the
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police chief because they want to be extorting,
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they want to be really kind of extracting as much money
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is really a product of,
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you know, this spreading new kind of criminal economy.
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And another thing you do see is more,
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more and more people who are heading to the US border,
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you know, trying to flee because they feel like they can
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no longer stay in their communities are the police or government trying
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to interfere in any way.
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it's a crime that really,
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largely goes unpunished.
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I think in many cases,
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you know, these crime groups try to control the police,
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under the current government,
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they've cut back on money for local police.
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They've invested more in the National Guard.
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So prosecutors tell me it's really hard because you need the cops
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that are kind of on the beat,
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you know, walking around.
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Those are the, that can more effectively stop extortion,
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but we don't really see much of that.
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Well, thank you so much,
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Mary Beth. We really appreciate you being on the show and
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telling us what exactly is going on.
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You know, because before back in the day I used to
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well, just don't get involved and it'll be fine.
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Just don't get involved with them and you're good.
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But now they're going after innocent people,
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you know, and more and more so,
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that's what's scary. So,
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thank you so much for bringing it down for us.
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where can people find you on social or any of your work
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Sure. I'm on Twitter at,
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Or you can find my stories on the Washington Post site,
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Washington post.com. I hope very much you'll read the story and
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find it interesting. Thank you.
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Thank you again, Mary Beth.
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Take care. Thank you.
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